The Science Curriculum Improvement Study Learning Cycle provides opportunities for students to reveal their science ideas, but no formal, structured opportunities exist for students to reflect on their science ideas. This study proposes a revised learning cycle model, termed the Metacognitive Learning Cycle, which emphasizes formal opportunities for teachers and students to talk about their science ideas. Working collaboratively, the researcher and a seventh‐grade science teacher developed a 3‐month ecology unit based on the revised model. Two science classrooms studied identical ecology content using different pedagogical orientations. One class was taught using the SCIS approach and one was taught using the metacognitive approach. Only in the metacognitive classroom were students asked to reveal their science ideas and to discuss the status of their conceptions throughout the instruction. Results showed that students in the metacognitive classroom did not gain a greater content knowledge of ecology, but they did experience more permanent restructuring of their ecology understandings. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 84:486–506, 2000.

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